Daffodils

I thought I’d share one of my favorite poems with you all tonight. William Wordsworth’s Daffodils has been a favorite of mine since I was forced to learn it ‘off by heart’ in primary school. At the words, I wandered, this poem would transport me from the smoke-blackened inner city of Glasgow and take me to the hills and vales dancing with golden daffodils. Even now, forty-odd years later, it still has the same effect on me. I don’t even need to close my eyes to see myself in that glorious field. Or to feel the calm and peace the poem brings. And the fact that this poem just happens to be about my very (bar-none) favorite flower only adds to the amazing experience.

I love daffodils! They always remind me of spring in Scotland with its rich green hills and profusion of flowers. Every week our teacher would bring a bunch of daffy’s into the classroom when they were in season – those and tulips. Many times I was the one chosen to freshen the water for the flowers. And though the water stank I loved doing that job because I got to touch the daffodils.

What’s your favorite poem and do you have any favorite flowers? 

 

I wandered lonely as a cloud

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils. 

William Wordsworth